Planet Swans ArchivesLatchford was born in Kings Heath in Birmingham back in 1951 and started his career with his home town side where he made more than 150 appearances before he moved to Everton in 1974 for a fee of £350,000 which, at the time, was a British record transfer fee.
At Everton, Latchford was the top scorer for six successive seasons. He scored 30 goals in the 1977–78 season, winning a £10,000 prize offered by a national newspaper for the first footballer to reach that number in a single season.
He won the first of his 12 England caps in 1977 and he scored 5 goals in those appearances and was widely considered one of the best centre forwards of his generation.
During his time at Everton, he was the club’s leading post Second World War goalscorer with 138 goals, a record he held until 1989 when Graeme Sharp exceeded Latchford’s tally. By the time Latchford left Everton, only Dixie Dean (pre Second World War) had scored more goals for the club in history.
When the Swans were promoted to the top flight in 1981, John Toshack was looking for a new a tall centre forward and Latchford fitted the bill and his impact was instant when he scored a hat-trick on his debut for the club as we demolished Leeds 5-1 at the Vetch.
He scored 35 goals in 87 appearances for the Swans and this week revealed that he could have had the managers job when Toshack departed in 1983
“When Tosh left for a short period, I was offered the manager’s job,” said Latchford. “I was 32 at the time and I hadn’t really begun thinking about management.
“I asked a lot of questions as I didn’t want to go into the job in the dark, but I just couldn’t get any sensible answers from anyone about what was going on. We knew it was in financial difficulty, but we had no idea how bad it was.
“So I had to turn it down. Looking back, I should have taken the job.”
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